FOXES. 
5-3 
Arctic Fox. 
Widely different from all the other species is the Arctic fox ( C . 
lag opus), characterised by the difference between its summer and 
winter dress, as well as by certain peculiarities in its form and habits. This 
species, which appears to inhabit nearly the whole of the known Arctic lands, 
descending in America to latitude 50°, and in the Old World to 60°, has a less 
pointed muzzle, and much shorter and more rounded ears than any other fox, while 
the hinder-parts of the cheeks are bordered with a kind of ruff of long hairs, and 
the soles of the feet are covered with a thick coat of woolly hair, which is most 
developed in winter. In the summer dress the hair is of moderate length, and is 
frequently of a brown or dull rufous colour on the head, back, outer sides of the 
limbs and tail; the under-parts being yellowish white. The under-fur is bluish 
ARCTIC FOX IN SUMMER DRESS (| liat. Size 
grey, and the roots of the long hairs are also of the same tint; and when this 
bluish grey extends farther up the hairs than usual the general colour of the fur 
is of the same hue. In other cases, as in the accompanying illustration, the whole 
of the upper-parts and the outer sides of the limbs are bluish grey, while the flanks 
and under-parts are almost white. 
With the assumption of the winter dress the fur becomes longer and thicker, 
and the white hairs which are scattered through the summer coat gradually increase 
in number, at the same time as the tips of the other hairs become white, until 
the whole length of each hair is of that colour. The animal is then completely 
clad in white, the naked tip of the nose being, however, black, while in certain 
cases the extremity of the tail may also be black. A specimen in the pure white 
winter dress is represented in the foreground of our second illustration. This 
winter change of colour is, however, by no means of constant occurrence; grey 
hairs sometimes largely mingling with the white, while at other times the prevalent 
hue of the fur is a uniform bluish grey, as shown in the upper figure of our second 
